Obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and exhaled nitric oxide in an early adolescent cohort.

Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is a marker of airway inflammation that is well-characterized in allergic disease states. However, FeNO is also involved in nonallergic inflammatory and pulmonary vascular mechanisms or responses to environmental stimuli. We sought to determine the extent to which obesity or sedentary lifestyle is associated with FeNO in adolescents not selected on the basis of allergic disease.

Timing of Complementary Feeding Introduction and Adiposity Throughout Childhood.

Objectives: To examine associations of the timing of complementary feeding (CF) introduction with adiposity throughout childhood.

Methods: We studied 1013 children from Project Viva. Our exposure was CF introduction, categorized as <4 months (19%), 4 to <6 months (68%; reference group), and ≥6 months of age (14%).

Women's perceived social support: associations with postpartum weight retention, health behaviors and depressive symptoms.

Background: Social support may promote healthful behaviors that prevent excess weight at critical periods in women's life. Our objective was to investigate associations of social support at 6 months postpartum with women's health behaviors that have previously been shown to predict weight retention at 1 year postpartum.

Methods: At 6 months postpartum in Project Viva, a pre-birth prospective cohort in Massachusetts, women reported social support using the Turner Support Scale, depressive symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, diet using PrimeScreen, average number of hours walking, light/moderate and vigorous physical activity, television viewing, and sleeping each day.

Characterization of longitudinal wheeze phenotypes from infancy to adolescence in Project Viva, a prebirth cohort study.

Using data from infancy to adolescence, our analysis of longitudinal wheeze phenotypes allowed us to visualize four longitudinal wheeze trajectories (never/infrequent wheeze, mid-childhood onset wheeze, early transient wheeze, and persistent wheeze).

Physical activity, sedentary time and cardiometabolic health indicators among Mexican children.

We examined the independent associations of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time (ST) with cardiometabolic indicators in Mexican children (4-6 years of age). We conducted a cross-sectional study (n = 400) using the measures of MVPA and ST (7-day accelerometry) and the following indicators: % body fat, waist circumference, body mass index (BMI) z-score, glycated haemoglobin, blood glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, leptin, adiponectin and resting blood pressure. We examined the independent associations of MVPA and ST with cardiometabolic indicators through confounder-adjusted and mutually adjusted (including both MVPA and ST) linear regression models.

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Objective:: To examine associations of hair cortisol concentration (HCC) in mid-childhood and change in HCC from mid-childhood to early adolescence (ΔHCC) with early adolescent adiposity and cardiometabolic biomarker measures.

Methods:: In Project Viva, a pre-birth cohort of mothers and children, we measured HCC in 599 white children in mid-childhood and in 426 of these participants in early adolescence. We used multivariable linear regression to examine associations of mid-childhood HCC and ΔHCC with BMI-for-age-and-sex z-score, waist circumference, waist-height ratio, dual X-ray absorptiometry total and trunk fat mass, a metabolic risk z-score, adiponectin, HOMA-IR, high-density lipoprotein, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, leptin, and systolic blood pressure.

Associations of Prenatal Dietary Inflammatory Potential with Childhood Respiratory Outcomes in Project Viva.

Background: Inflammation during pregnancy may be a factor in the developmental programming of asthma and wheeze in childhood.

Objective: To examine associations of inflammatory potential of prenatal diet with respiratory outcomes in early childhood and midchildhood.

Methods: Among 1424 mother-child pairs in Project Viva, a prebirth cohort, we examined associations of Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®) (first trimester, second trimester, and average of first and second trimesters) scores in relation to ever asthma and wheezing in the past year (early childhood and midchildhood); current asthma and lung function (midchildhood), and wheeze trajectory during 1 to 9 years.

Understanding childhood obesity in the US: the NIH environmental influences on child health outcomes (ECHO) program.

Background: Few resources exist for prospective, longitudinal analysis of the relationships between early life environment and later obesity in large diverse samples of children in the United States (US). In 2016, the National Institutes of Health launched the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program to investigate influences of environmental exposures on child health and development. We describe demographics and overweight and obesity prevalence in ECHO, and ECHO's potential as a resource for understanding how early life environmental factors affect obesity risk.

Associations of prenatal or infant exposure to acetaminophen or ibuprofen with mid-childhood executive function and behaviour.

Background: Over-the-counter analgesics during pregnancy or infancy may be related to neurobehavioural problems in children, but little is known about effects of different analgesic types, dosage, and timing.

Objectives: Examine associations of acetaminophen and ibuprofen use during pregnancy and infancy with executive function and behaviour problems in children.

Methods: We included 1225 mother-child pairs from Project Viva, a pre-birth cohort study.

Association of Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution With Thyroid Function During Pregnancy.

Importance: Air pollutants interact with estrogen nuclear receptors, but their effect on thyroid signaling is less clear. Thyroid function is of particular importance for pregnant women because of the thyroid's role in fetal brain development.

Objective: To determine the short-term association of exposure to air pollution in the first trimester with thyroid function throughout pregnancy.

Parental Obesity and Offspring Pubertal Development: Project Viva.

Objective: To investigate the association of preconception parental obesity (body mass index [BMI] ≥30 kg/m) with offspring pubertal development.

Study Design: Among 1377 children from a prospective prebirth cohort in Boston, we examined markers of puberty (age at peak height velocity [PHV], age at menarche, self-reported pubertal development score), and adrenarche (pictograph Tanner pubic hair staging). We used multivariable regression models to examine associations of maternal and paternal obesity with offspring pubertal indices, and applied marginal structural models to estimate the controlled direct effect not mediated by offspring prepubertal BMI.

Growth During Infancy and Early Childhood and Its Association With Metabolic Risk Biomarkers at 11.5 Years of Age.

The evidence that fetal life and early infancy are "critical" or "sensitive" ages for later development of cardiometabolic disease is based on flawed methods for comparing different age periods. Moreover, most previous studies have limited their focus to weight gain, rather than growth in length/height or body mass index (weight (kg)/height (m)2). We undertook a secondary analysis of data from the Promotion of Breastfeeding Intervention Trial (1996-2010), a birth cohort study nested within a large cluster-randomized trial in the Republic of Belarus, that had repeated measurements of weight and length/height taken from birth to 11.

Chronotype, Social Jet Lag, and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Early Adolescence.

Importance: Inadequate sleep duration and quality increase the risk of obesity. Sleep timing, while less studied, is important in adolescents because increasing evening preferences (chronotypes), early school start times, and irregular sleep schedules may cause circadian misalignment.

Objective: To investigate associations of chronotype and social jet lag with adiposity and cardiometabolic risk in young adolescents.

Prenatal lead exposure and childhood executive function and behavioral difficulties in project viva.

Background: Lead is an established neurotoxicant and early life exposure to lead is associated with detrimental impacts on IQ and several neurobehavioral domains. Less is known, however, about effects of prenatal lead exposure below 5 μg/dL on executive function and on social, emotional and self-regulatory behaviors in childhood.

Objectives: To examine the association between prenatal lead exposure and childhood executive function and social, emotional and self-regulatory behaviors.

Socioeconomic status and DNA methylation from birth through mid-childhood: a prospective study in Project Viva.

We investigated associations of prenatal socioeconomic status (SES) with DNA methylation at birth, and to explore persistence of associations into early (∼3 years) and mid-childhood (∼7 years) among 609 mother-child pairs in a Boston-area prebirth cohort. First, we created a prenatal SES index comprising individual- and neighborhood-level metrics and examined associations of low (lowest 10%) versus high (upper 90%) SES with genome-wide DNA methylation in cord blood via the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip. Next, we evaluated persistence of associations detected in cord blood with DNA methylation of the same CpG sites measured in peripheral leukocytes in early- and mid-childhood.

Early-Life Predictors of Systolic Blood Pressure Trajectories From Infancy to Adolescence: Findings From Project Viva.

Childhood blood pressure (BP) is a strong predictor of later risk of cardiovascular disease. However, few studies have assessed dynamic BP trajectories throughout the early-life period. We investigated the relationship between early-life factors and systolic BP (SBP) from infancy to adolescence using linear spline mixed-effects models among 1,370 children from Project Viva, a Boston, Massachusetts-area cohort recruited in 1999-2002.

Association of BMI with Linear Growth and Pubertal Development.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of BMI with subsequent statural growth among children born in the era of the obesity epidemic.

Methods: Among 18,271 children from Belarus (n = 16,781, born 1996 to 1997) and the United States (n = 1,490, born 1999 to 2002), multivariable linear and ordinal logistic regression was used to analyze associations of BMI z score from infancy to adolescence with subsequent standardized length and height velocity, standing height and its components (trunk and leg lengths), and pubertal timing.

Results: The prevalence of early adolescent obesity was 6.

Developmental overnutrition and obesity and type 2 diabetes in offspring.

Childhood obesity has reached pandemic proportions, and youth-onset type 2 diabetes is following suit. This review summarises the literature on the influence of developmental overnutrition, resulting from maternal diabetes, obesity, maternal dietary intake during pregnancy, excess gestational weight gain, and infant feeding practices, on the aetiology of obesity and type 2 diabetes risk during childhood and adolescence. Key goals of this review are: (1) to summarise evidence to date on consequences of developmental overnutrition; (2) describe shared and distinct biological pathways that may link developmental overnutrition to childhood obesity and youth-onset type 2 diabetes; and (3) to translate current knowledge into clinical and public health strategies that not only target primary prevention in youth, but also encourage primordial prevention during the perinatal period, with the aim of breaking the intergenerational cycle of obesity and diabetes.

Prenatal oxidative balance and risk of asthma and allergic disease in adolescence.

Background: Fetal oxidative balance (achieved when protective prenatal factors counteract sources of oxidative stress) might be critical for preventing asthma and allergic disease.

Objective: We examined prenatal intakes of hypothesized protective nutrients (including antioxidants) in conjunction with potential sources of oxidative stress in models of adolescent asthma and allergic disease.

Methods: We used data from 996 mother-child pairs in Project Viva.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance Plasma Concentrations and Bone Mineral Density in Midchildhood: A Cross-Sectional Study (Project Viva, United States).

Background: Identifying factors that impair bone accrual during childhood is a critical step toward osteoporosis prevention. Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) has been associated with lower bone mineral density, but data are limited, particularly in children.

Methods: We studied 576 children in Project Viva, a Boston-area cohort of mother/child pairs recruited prenatally from 1999 to 2002.

Association of Thyroid Function Test Abnormalities and Thyroid Autoimmunity With Preterm Birth: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Maternal hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism are risk factors for preterm birth. Milder thyroid function test abnormalities and thyroid autoimmunity are more prevalent, but it remains controversial if these are associated with preterm birth.

Objective: To study if maternal thyroid function test abnormalities and thyroid autoimmunity are risk factors for preterm birth.